What is it like to be a video game developer?

Techronicles is joined today by the founder of Heraldic, Artem Denton to interview him on his experience in the game development industry.

Artem D (aka Tantalus on some forums) was born in 1991 and had an aptitude for computers since an early age.

In 2011 Artem founded an indie studio called ApostleMod.
At first the company focused on game modding (hence the name ApostleMOD) and it wasn’t until 2013 that Artem found out about virtualization technology and came up with the idea of Cloud PCs, the idea that became his vision, his passion to start project Mise En Abyme with the dream to change the way we use personal computers, moving them from our desktops into the cloud.

I Am Particularly Interested In Emerging Technologies. Never Be Afraid To Be A Pioneer, The Future Is Whatever You Shape It To Be. Find The Trend That Excites You, Follow It And Break A New Ground.

Q: Tell us about the games you were involved in.

A: My first game development experience was at the age of 13 when he made a custom campaign for Heroes of Might and Magic IV.

Heaven And Hell (2001)

This campaign included a diverse fantasy world with elaborate quests and the adventures of 6 heroes that travel under the same unit in this step-by-step strategy game. Unfortunately this epic mod was lost along with my first computer hard drive.

The Chronicles of the X-3 (2007)

The first released modification I released was The Chronicles of the X-3, a total conversion for GTA: San Andreas. Although it consisted mostly of combining other mods together, TCOTX3 featured a set of 50+ missions I designed as well as GUI tweaks, texture overhaul, custom locations and light coding.

[smartslider3 slider=11]

The biggest failure of this mod was the immense amount of bugs that made the game crash too often.

Deus Ex: Frozen Hell (2011)

In 2011 I created my first Deus Ex mod using Unreal 1 engine. It was the controversial Deus Ex: Frozen Hell, an RPG with a strong spin-off storyline, full voice acting and Martian sci-fi levels full of secrets and BSP holes.

Deus Ex: Apocalypse Inside (2016)

In development since 2010, Deus Ex: Apocalypse Inside is an epic prequel to Frozen Hell. Unlike the original Ion Storm’s Deus Ex, Apocalypse Inside will have more adventure, puzzle and roleplaying elements.

New Skills

Piloting

French language

Chinese language

Bionics

New locations

Texas

Moon

Ophelia space station

New Augmentations

Psyonic Receiver

CASIE Aug

Icarus Landing System

Deus Ex: Codename Nebula (2016)

This mod is a DLC mission in Apocalypse Inside saga. It takes place sole on Ophelia Space Station, the cut level from Ion Storm’s original plot. JC Denton is sent on a mission to find out what happened at the station after the signal with it was lost.

Desperation (coming in 2016)

[smartslider3 slider=12]

Desperation is a dynamic hardcore game in the genre of arcade/simulator/3D shooter with a cinematic storyline, cool characters and stunning locations. Features original hardcore/heavy metal tracks. It’s coming out on Steam in 2016 as a standalone title without in-game monetization. I was managing Desperation’s social accounts and took care of marketing strategies in the pre-release stage.

Q: What programs did you use to develop your games?

A: For GTA: San Andreas I used MapEd for mapping, IMG tool for packet import/extraction CLEO script editor for coding, TXD Workshop for texturing. For Deus Ex mods Ion Storm released a comprehensive SDK (Software Development Kit) that I use. In addition to that, there are a number of indie-developed tools mainly from Unreal engine modding community.

Q: Did you have to pay for tools you used or education?

A: All tools are available for free, because most of them were made by indie modders and even large engines like Unity or Unreal are available for download and use free of charge, you only pay if your game is copyrighted by only you and you intend to sell it. GameDev education did not cost me anything except many hours of searching forums and watching YouTube tutorials.

Q: What do you think about the future of gaming?

A: Let’s envision 2040-ies. Macbooks and Windows 10 PCs will belong in museums and legacy storage closets. There will be more powerful processors, maybe even quantum-based.� I think consoles and handheld consoles are going to go out of business and will be replaced by mobile devices accelerated through gaming cloud desktops with new cloud VR apps. These apps will utilize the position trackers of the mobile device and send it over to the cloud VR server. The server will then render the VR and send it back to the user’s device.

The development of Web 3.0 will merge video games, the Internet, hardware and operating systems together. For example, imagine billions of nanotechnological computing machines implanted in your brain that are communicating with Internet servers and billions of other people at the speed of light. The servers will process graphics on quantum CPUs and send VR images directly into your eye retina.
There will be a good deal of controversy and likely legislation concerning this new technology, but in my opinion this industry is not going to be destroyed by critics. As for me I would embrace this future and at the same time remember to keep my humanity. It is intelligence, faith, love and courage that make us human, not our bodies or organs.